
Author . 



Title 



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16-^7372-2 afO 



Slatiic of liejieral Nailhiiiac} (ireeue. 



REMARKS \ 



HON. A. II. TANNER OF NEW YORK. 

T. A. JENCKES OF RHODE ISLAND. 

B. F. WHITTEMORE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 

C. L. OOBB OF NORTH CAROLINA. 

H. W. SLOCUM OF NEW YORK. 

JOHN BEATTY OF OHIO. 



DELIVEUEU 



IN THE HOUSI'] OF REPRESENTATIVES 



JANUARY 31, 1870. 



WASHINGTON: 
r. & J. RIVES & GEO. A. BAILEY, 

REPORTERS AND PRINTERS OF THE DEBATES OF CONGRESS. 

1870. 






Statue of General Nathanael Greene. 



The business on the Speaker's table was the 
followiflg concurrent resolution of the Senate, 
accepting the statue of Major General Greene : 

Resolved, That the thanks of this Congress be pre- 
sented to the Governor, and through him to the 
people of the State of Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations, for the statue of Major General Greene, 
whose name is so honorably identified with our rev- 
olutionary history ; that this work of art is accepted 
in the name of the nation and assigned a place in the 
old Hall of the House of Representatives, already set 
aside by act of Congress for the statues of eminent 
citizens ; and that acopy of this resolution, signed by 
the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives, be transmitted to the Gov- 
ernor of the State of Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations. 

Mr. TANNER. I move that the House con- 
cur in the resolution. 

Mr. Speaker, the old Hall of the House 
of Representatives has been dedicated by act 
of Congress to the commemoration of civic and 
military virtues by art. The State of Rhode 
Island is the first of the States to erect in this 
noble Hall a statue, wrought from purest mar- 
ble, of one of her most illustrious citizens, who 
in the early history of this Republic, in battle 
and in council, illustrated the valor, the wis- 
dom, and the patriotism of the American soldier 
and the American statesman. Our history is 
rich with the records of such men; but the 
common consent of the American people has 
assigned to General Nathanael Greene a place 
among the very first of those great men who 
have thus adorned either the earlier or the later 
periods of our history. It is no part of my 
purpose to pronounce hiseulogium. His great 



deeds and his greater character are recorded 
in the annals of his country's history, and a 
grateful people will not permit them to pass 
from the memories of men. When time shall 
have dimmed the luster of this marble and have 
marred the beauty of its outlines the character 
of this great man will shine with ever increas- 
ing brightness, and every line of its majestic 
proportions preserve their original grace and 
dignity to excite the interest and arouse the 
emulation of posterity. 

Mr. Speaker, I send to the Clerk's desk a 
letter from the Governor of the State of Rhode 
Island upon this subject, and ask that it be read. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

State op Rhode Island, 
Executive Department, Providence, 
^ January 3, 1870. 

Sir: In accordance with a resolution of Congress 
passed July 2, 1864, inviting each State to furnish for 
the Hall of the old House of Representatives two 
full-length marble statues "of deceased persons who 
have been citizens thereof and illustrious for their 
historic renown, from distinguished civic or military 
services, such as each State shall determine to bo 
worthy of national commemoration," the State of 
Rhode Island, by a vote of its General Assembly, 
has caused to be made two marble statues, one of 
Roger Williams, the founder of the State, the other 
of Major General Nathanael Greene, a distinguished 
officer of the army of the Revolution. 

I have now the honor to inform you that the statue 
of Major General Nathanael Greene, by Mr. H. K. 
Brown, an American artist, is finished and has been 
forwarded to Washington and delivered to the arch- 
itect of the Capitol. 

With high respect, I have the honor to remain 
vour most obedient servant. 

SETH PADELFORD, 
Governor of Rhode Island. 
The Honorable the Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. 



Mr. JENCKES. It has become the pleasant 
duty of the Representatives of Rhode Island 
to offer to Congress, in response to the joint 
resolution inviting such presentation, the statue 
of her illustrious sou, the great soldier and 
general of the v/ar of independence, Nathanael 
Greene. 

It is the first contribution to that hall of 
statuary in which the States have been invited 
to place the images of their distinguished men. 
That old Hall, which had already attained his- 
toric fame as the place of meeting of the Rep- 
resentatives of the people, having given place 
to the one we now occupy in the grov/th 
of the nation, was wisely dedicated and set 
apart to receive and retain the forms of the 
great representative men who have preceded 
us, sculptui-ed in enduring marble. The living 
generations and those who represent them in 
these Hallscomeand go ; buthereafter the forum 
which has been relinquished by the living will 
be filled with the images of the great ones who 
have gone on befoi-e, a silent yet eloquent com- 
pany, teaching the great lessons of our coun- 
try's history, and inspiriting the patriotism of 
all who shall come Into their presence. 

Rhode Island has selected General Greene to 
represent her in this august assembly of the 
past, because his life and deeds belong to the 
nation. Though born and reared in the small- 
est and most clannish of the Commonv/ealths 
which united in achieving independence and 
then merged in the Union of the States under 
the Constitution, he never had a thought which 
was not as broad as the Republic. He was 
among the fii'st to recommend a national dec- 
laration of independence. Wherever he served 
the whole weight of his mind, of his character, 
and of his example was given to overbear the 
petty jealousies and rivalries of the several 
colonies. 

" For my part,"' he wrote from the camp of 
observation before Boston, in 1775, " I feel the 
cause and not the place. I would as soon go to 
Virginia as stay here."' He felt from the be- 
ginning, and he was one whose service dated 
from the day of Lexington, that the object of 
the war was not merely to secure the separation 
of the Colonies from Great Britain. He was 
one of the few to whom the great future and 
destiny of the new nation were revealed. He 



wrote from the camp before Boston, in the 
interval between Lexington and Bunker Hill, 
with all the enthusiasm of a young soldier, and 
yet v/ith the prescience of a statesman : 

"America mustraisc an empire of pcrmanentdura- 
tion, supported upon the grand pillars of truth, free- 
dom, and religion, based upon justice and defended 
by her own patriotic sons." 

And he adds in the same letter : 

"Permit me, then, to recommend from the sin- 
cerity of my heart, ready at all times to bleed in my 
country's cause, a declaration of independence, and 
call upon the world and the great God who governs 
it to witness the necessity, propriety, and rectitude 
thereof." 

All his suggestions and recommendations 
were in favor of a national policy and national 
action, for the achievement of national inde- 
pendence, and the creation of a national republic 
which should be a power among the nations of 
the earth. His entire correspondence breathes 
with this national spirit. In the character of 
statesman as well as soldier he is entitled to a 
place among the nation's worthies. " In this 
character," said Hamilton — 

"His reputation falls far below his desert. It 
required a longer life and still greater opportunities 
to nave enabled him to exhibit in full day the vast, 
I had almostsaid the enormous powers of his mind." 
* * * * "The sudden termination of his 
life cut hjm off from those scenes, which the progress 
of a new, immense, and unsettled empire could not 
fail to open the complete exertion of that universal 
and pervading genius which qualified him not less 
for the senate than for the field." 

These qualities entitle him to a place in the 
Capitol, although his fame rests chiefly upon 
his career as a soldier. A narration of this 
career would be a history of the war for inde- 
pendence. That is aside from our purpose 
now, v/hich is simply to Introduce and present 
his statue. It was the first duty of the artist 
to know all this; to have studied the whole life 
of his subject; to have become familiar with 
his form and presence ; to have become ac- 
quainted with his thoughts and impulses, and to 
know their expression In his lineaments and 
bearing; and to have selected that moment 
when he may have been supposed to have been 
transfigured by the thoughts, the purposes, the 
inspiration of his life, and to transfer his whole 
nature and character as well as form and feature 
to the enduring marble. 

There were many and grave occasions in his 
career in which his person and his conduct 
were conspicuous, and when his features must 



have borne the strongest impressions of his 
character. And it seems to me as I look upon 
the masterly work of the sculptor in the place 
where it now stands, when the slanting ra3's 
of light bring out in bold relief the vigor and 
the spirit of the attitude, the high purpose and 
fixed resolve shown in the features, the strong 
and deep lines of thought in the brow, and 
leave in dark shadow the sad, sweet, and even 
tender expression of the emotions which welled 
up from the great heart of the hero, that the 
artist has given him to us at the crowning 
moment of his great and earnest life. 

He is not reproduced to us as when, high in 
hope, he led to the army of observation around 
Boston the regiments of Rhode Island, which 
v/ere styled in the reports from Washington's 
headquarters "the best disciplined and ap- 
pointed in the whole American Army ;" nor as 
when he led the corps which, though second in 
place, was the first in position at Trenton ; nor 
as he covered the slow retreat at the Brandy- 
wine ; nor as at Germantown, after having 
gained all that was expected of the wing of the 
army which he commanded, he looked around 
as the fog lifted and found the rest of the army 
broken and dispersed ; noryet, asat Monmouth, 
when his sure judgment caused the movement, 
not authorized by his orders, which restored 
the doubtful field and regained all that Lee's 
disobedience had lost ; nor as at Springfield, 
T/hen for the first time in separate command, 
he had the pleasure and the pride of seeing the 
enemy reti-eat from his well- chosen positions ; 
nor as when with bowed head and tearful eye he 
signed the report of the court-martial which 
decreed the doom of Andre ; nor with the severe 
front with which he met the British envoy and 
general who came to i-emonstrate against that 
doom; nor yet with the look of indignation with 
which he took command at West Point upon the 
flight of Arnold the traitor; nor as when he re- 
monstrated with the French admiral for his con- 
templated desertion ofthe movement for the cap- 
ture of Rhode Island ; nor as when he received 
that letter fromWashington, tender and touch- 
ing, notwithstanding its formal and official char- 
acter, in which he is informed that he has been 
designated by his commander-in-chief as the 
commander of the southern army ; nor as after 



his masterly maneuvers in presence of Lord 
Cornwallis and his army he saw victory slipping 
from his grasp at Guilford ; nor as when he found 
on the day after that battle that the substantial 
results of victory v/cre his ; butrather as when he 
had halted from 1 he pursuit ofthe army of Corn- 
wallis, and resting upon the banks of Deep river, 
he looked over the whole field ofthe continental 
warfare, and came to that grand resolve which, 
after incessant fighting, restored the Carolinas 
and Georgia to the Union ; when, with his back 
to the lost field and yet victorious campaign of 
Guilford, he left Cornwallis to receive his fate 
from other hands, and looked along the fair land 
which lay between the mountains and the sea, 
then overrun by the enemy, and vowed that it 
should be restored to his country or that him- 
self should perish. 

We see him as the whole scope of that great 
determination is becoming clear to his mind ; 
as he stood before he announced that determ- 
ination to Washington in one of the simplest 
and grandest letters in any language. He does 
not disguise nor is he appalled by the high 
nature of his resolve or the dangers involved 
in its execution. If he had met his death this 
letter would have been sufiicient for his fame. 
The undaunted spirit there expressed, the alac- 
rity with which he draws his sword in what he 
knows and admits to be an unequal contest, 
and with which he enters upon " a maneuver 
which will be critical and dangerous, and in 
which the troops will be exposed to every hard- 
ship," and the resolute yet sad and thoughtful 
air with which such a movement must be com- 
menced — all these were comprehended by the 
artist and are seen and almost live and breathe 
in the statue. The clear vision of all the 
desperate fights of these campaigns, the long, 
weary marches, the toils, the hardships, the dis- 
couragements, the reverses and the triumphs, 
seem to be prefigured in that expression and 
attitude. 

Of this movement Hamilton has said: 

"This was one of those strokes that denote supe- 
rior genius and constitute the sublime of war. 'Iwas 
Scipio leaving Ilannibal in Italy to overcome him at 
Carthage !" 

When this euloglum was spoken the com- 
parison was, perhaps, the most striking to be 
found in history. But in our times we can see 



in it a likeness to a movement more brilliant 
than that of Scipio. We view it as the pre- 
cursor of that grand " march to the sea" upon 
which rests the iame of one of the first of living 
generals. 

But General Greene cannot be said to have 
been a favorite of fortune. His successes 
were wrested from her, not yielded. He 
should have won the Guilford battle ; but while 
compelled to relinquish the field by the con- 
duct of some of his inexperienced troops, 
the next morning found him preparing his 
army for a fresh encounter, and the nominal 
victor preparing liis for a retreat. He gave 
battle to Lord Rawdon at Hobkirk's hill and 
seemingly lost, but gained the results of a vic- 
tory in the enemy's evacuation of Camden. He 
besieged and assaulted the fort at Ninety-Six 
and was repulsed, but gained all that he con- 
tended for, except prisoners, in its immediate 
evacuation. He did not entirely succeed at 
Eutaw, but in that drawn battle the power of 
Great Britain in the Carolinas and Georgia 
was broken, and the British armies were soon 
compelled to yield those States, the prize of 
victory, t© the American forces and their reso- 
lute leader. 

His military successes have sometimes been 
disparaged on account of the small numbers of 
his troops ; but his operations were on a larger 
area than had ever before been the field of civ- 
ilized warfare. His military district embraced 
all the territory south of Pennsylvania. The 
regular force under his command could hardly 
be called more than the nucleus of an army, 
which was sometimes swelled into respectable 
numbers but not reenforced by bands of militia 
who came and went almost as they pleased. He 
had opposed to him the best generals and the 
best appointed armies of Great Britain. The 
enemy had complete command of the ports, the 
shores, and the sea ; he had compelled the sur- 
render of two armies and of all fortified places ; 
yet from the time Greene took the command 
of the remnants of the southern army the foot 
of the invader never rested upon the soil of the 
Carolinas outside of his fortifications, and even 
these he was at last compelled to evacuate. 

The character and qualities of mind that 
brought about these great results with such 



slender means have received expression from 
the consummate skill of the artist. We see 
that greatness of soul which won the admira- 
tion and afi'ection of the people to whom he 
came both as conqueror and deliverer, and 
from whom he was compelled to subsist his 
armies while restoring them to their liberties 
and their rights ; that resolution which sur- 
mounted all obstacles ; that courage v^hich was 
equal both to the leading of a charge and to the 
declining of a challenge ; that buoyancy of 
spirit and confidence in resources which no dis- 
appointment could cast down, which no disas- 
ter could daunt, no reverse dispirit, and no 
defeat entirely destroy; that "noble frank- 
ness " which disarmed personal hostility, and 
made envy and jealousy ashamed ; that un- 
conquerable energy which never flagged or 
grew vreary, and that hopefulness which be- 
lieved in nothing but success and which was 
one of the greatest means of attaining it. Type 
of that brave race among whom he grew up and 
whose representative men have gained rewards 
and honors not in war alone, we present him 
to you as one eminently fit to be placed in the 
company of those great men whose lives and 
deeds are the pride and the glory of the Ameri- 
can people. 

Mr. WHITTEMORE. Mr. Speaker, I can- 
not hope nor do I attempt to use the utter- 
ances the gentleman preceding me has been 
inspired with as he marshaled our memories 
to pay their homage to one so noble, so worthy 
a nation's acclaim. I come with the tribute 
of a State which owes so much to the patri- 
otism of New England's son, the valor of his 
arm, the unswerving integrity of his soul, the 
irresistible strength of his purpose, his devo- 
tion to his country. South Carolina bows in 
reverence to the name of Nathanael Greene. 

As we turn to the epochs of the past, its 
scenes, its hours of historic moment, and stand 
among the giants that hewed the way for our 
national progress, that stirred the hearts of 
stern and sturdy colonists, that moved to deeds 
all pregnant v/ith renown the pioneers of a 
continental growth, and behold the march of 
the gathering heroes who with invincible emo- 
tions and sacrificial vows nerved the popular 



will and arm in defense of our sacred altars, 
our natal fires — as we stand amid the forms 
of Washington, Putnam, Stark, Trumbull, and 
their fearless compatriots, no one is more con- 
spicuous than he whose services contributed 
so largely to the establishment of American in- 
dependence, Major General Nathanael Greene, 
whose statue Rhode Island, in response to the 
nation's invitation, has placed in the old Hall 
of the House of Representatives, where clus- 
tered associations of national greatness linger. 

Born at a time when we were approaching a 
climax in our stirring history, educated in the 
school ofstrictest integrity, making the Bible his 
earliest guide and text-book, nervinghis arm and 
strengthening his muscles at the blacksmith's 
forge, storing his mind while the iron was heat- 
ing with the sublime demonstrations of science, 
buoyant in spirits, firm in resolve, uncompro- 
mising in principle, with a vigorous constitu- 
tion, methodical and studious, never neglect- 
ing the manual or mental task, bold and 
original in his conceptions, deliberate and 
cool, never shrinking from hardships or sacri- 
fices, always patient, but prompt; such was 
the young athlete who was to play so important 
a part in the coming councils and struggles 
which were to decide the nation's destiny. 

The stamp act, oppressive burdens, and royal 
exactions caused murmurings bitter and venge- 
ful. Young Greene, now in the General As- 
sembly, by firm and zealous acts, by bold and 
unequivocal expressions, became the object of 
suspicion to the hirelings of the Crown. The 
Gaspee had been burned in Providence river, 
the king's cutter seized at Newport, the British 
troops were landing at Boston, the colonists 
were to be subjected to the tyranny of King 
George or wrest themselves from the iron 
thralldom of his power: the sound of hostile 
preparations was heard and Rhode Island's 
sonswaitednottobetoldofthe coming contests. 
Military ardor and enthusiasm prevailed, mili- 
tia organiza,tions were formed, reviews held, 
martial spirit pervaded the masses ; and the 
hitherto sober, peaceful Quaker blacksmith 
was found chief among the active patriots, 
firmly declaring "his intentions to persevere 
in the part he had assumed, in the cause he had 
embraced." The Kentish Guards, with v/hom 



he was enrolled, v/ere in arms "and eager for 
the fray." 

The alarm that the yeomanry of New Eng- 
land had been attacked on Lexington green 
roused the colonists, and the General Assem- 
bly of Rhode Island raised an array of sixteen 
hundred men, and by unanimous consent 
placed at their head the stern, unflinching 
patriot, Nathanael Greene, with the rank of 
major general. 

From May, 1775, we may date hia historic 
career. We can only follow him through the 
rapidly transpiring events — the assembling of 
the continental forces at Cambridge, the for- 
tifying around Boston, the battle of Long 
Island, the reverses of which were attributable 
to his sickness and absence, the battles of 
Trenton and Princeton, Valley Forge, the 
intrigues and conspiracies against tlie Com- 
mander-in-Chief, against himself; his trans- 
fer to the quartermaster's department when 
provisions were almost unprocurable, trans- 
portation of supplies badly wanting, intrencli- 
ing tools strewed along the line of march, 
suffering untold, intense, among men and ani- 
mals, the public credit ebbing, large arrears 
due, heavier expenditures to come, a new 
campaign approaching, an enemy flushed with 
hope to encounter ; yet for all this, trying as 
were the circumstances that surrounded the 
patriot chiefs and braves, he never faltered, 
but stood at the side of the peerless Washing- 
ton encouraging and infusing all with hope — 
trusted and counseled. 

He was among the earliest advocates of ab- 
solute independence ; grasping the great idea 
of an indissoluble Union that could alone grow 
out of the Revolution upon which the colonists 
had entered. Everything hostile to such a 
compact he regarded as perilous to the interests 
of his country. No narrow boundary or geo- 
graphical limit invaded his conceptions. " For 
my part," said he, " I am as ready to serve in 
Virginia as New England." 

The thirteen Colonies he saw already bound 
together in solemn unity ; and in a letter as 
early as June 4, 1775, he wrote to an eminent 
member of Congress saying : 

"Permit me to recommend from the sincerity of 
my heart, at all times ready to bleed in my country's 



cause, a declaration of independence, and call upon 
the world and the great God who governs it to wit- 
ness the necessity, propriety, and rectitude thereof." 

For untiring exertion, promptitude in duty, 
devotion to the cause of liberty, breadth of 
capacity to perform the herculean tasks im- 
posed upon him, unflinching loyalty to his 
country, he was the equal of all ; yet vindic- 
tive cabals soughts his overthrow, and Congress 
listened to the appeals of conspirators who 
would have paralyzed the arm of a hero to 
secure the restoration of an imbecile. 

By such treatment he was goaded to a reso- 
lution to resign after the close of the campaign 
then entered upon ; but ho was induced by the 
persuasive influence of his unalterable fneud. 
Washington, to change his determination and 
accept the command of the army of the South, 
which v/as in his hands to be reorganized, 
resouled, to enter upon the theater of grand 
events against an enemy arrogant with victory, 
famous for its discipline and energy, till now 
irresistible. 

Our forces with their allies had been routed ; 
Charleston had surrendered. Clinton with his 
triumphs had lured the disaffected to the stand- 
ards of St. George, and the few scattering par- 
tisans, true still to the hallowed cause of liberty, 
were palsied and hopeless. Lincoln v/as a 
prisoner; Gates defeated at Camden ; the cos- 
mopolitan De Kalb slain; discomfiture like a 
cloud resting upon southern hearts, homes, and 
hopes. 

Washington, who believed " true friendship 
was a plant of slow growth, which must under- 
go and withstand the shocks of adversity before 
it can be entitled to the appellation," gave his 
friendship and confidence to Greene without 
restriction or reserve. V/ith such credentials 
he started for his command with Steuben, the 
great disciplinarian of the American army, 
his aid Dupouccau, and Burnet and Morris, 
his own aids, leaving behind in Maryland and 
Delaware General Gist, who was to solicit and 
forward supplies, v/ith these instructions: 

"Let your applications be as pressing as our neces- 
sities are urgent; aftcrwhioh, if thesouthern States 
are lost, we shall be justified." 

With a sentiment like this he met his army 
at Charlotte, North Carolina; consisting of 
nine hundred and seventy continentals and 



ten hundred and thirteen militia ; (in the mag- 
azines no clothing, arms, or ammunition;) "two 
brass and several iron field-pieces ;" eight hun- 
dred only of the soldiers properly clad or ready 
for service ; all dependent upon forced collec- 
tions of food from a surrounding country plun- 
dered and devastated by foreign troops and 
equally desolating Whigs and Tories. 

With such discouragements he rose equal to 
the occasion. Around him were tried veteran 
officers: "Morgan, with the renown of bold 
achievements at Quebec and Saratoga ;" Lee 
with his gallant legion ; the chivalrous How 
ard ; cool, courageous Williams ; the system 
atic Carrington ; the partisan Davie ; the gal 
lant Kosciusko ; Pendleton, Burnet, Morris, 
and Pearce, with the brilliant, dashing, daring 
Marion and Sumter. 

With such a retinue of heroism he began the 
campaigns memorable for their deprivations, 
retreats, advancings, and final triumphs over 
the enemy in the Carolinas. "New lords and 
new laws prevailed." Historic names sprang 
into existence as his faithful army marched 
" to the city by the sea." 

Through the Carolinas the popular acclaim 
followed the guardians of American liberty. 
Eutaw Springs, Guilford Court-House, Cam- 
den, Hobkirk's Hill, Ninety-Six, were blazoned 
on the banners of the conquering legions whose 
prowess a Greene has made the theme of song 
and story. 

The General Assembly of South Carolina once 
again met at the village of Jacksonborough, 
on the western bank of the Edisto. Governor 
Rutledge, who followed closely the fortunes 
of Greene and his array, adding efficiency and 
force to his achievements, now congratulating 
the members of the Assembly upon the close 
of the direful conflict, assured them of their 
indebtedness to the ' ' great and gallant Greene, 
by whose wisdom, prudence, address, and 
bravery their deliverance had been effected," 
and reminded them of his claims to honorable 
and singular marks of tlieir gratitude. Every 
heart responded to the appeal and acknowl- 
edged in fullest terms the justice of his claim. 
With my voice to-day I reecho the adulations 
of the past, and here again pronounce the faith- 
ful acknowledgments of Carolina's sons to the 



9 



hero of Rhode Island ; who not only conceived 
an independence of the original thirteen Col- 
onies, but dared to cut with his trusty sword 
through every obstacle that interposed, until 
the conception ripened into the birth of a glo- 
rious declaration of a free and independent 
people, whose principles are the levers of human 
advancement, the oracles of universal brother- 
hood, whose flag is the emblem of liberty, equal- 
ity, fraternity, whose national domain is broad 
enough to shelter the yearning millions that are 
struggling to be free. 

We welcome the marble warrior to our clas- 
sic Halls. I have looked with admiration upon 
the chiseled form of the grand old hero that 
inspires us with the spirit of our revolutionary 
fathers. Though we cannot point to the spot 
where his sacred ashes slumber ; though his 
grave is known only to Him whose voice can 
wake the dead, we gather round the silent 
statue, recount his deeds, glory in his achieve- 
ments — South Carolina and Rhode Island, the 
whole Republic, grateful for his memories, 
mindful of his virtues, boasting his illustrious 
name. 

Let us crowd the Chamber with the sentinel 
spirits of the times which tried men's souls ; 
and as we partake in security of the fruit of 
their valor, their sacrifice, remember the price 
of liberty which they have paid. 

Mr. COBB, of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, 
T shall not be able to say anything that has not 
already been better said by the gentlemen who 
have preceded me ; nor do I rise for the pur- 
pose of attempting to add one word to the elo- 
quent and comprehensive eulogies which have 
been pronounced upon the distinguished dead ; 
but I am induced to submit the few remarks 
which I now ofifer because the State of North 
Carolina, which I have the honor to represent 
in part upon this floor, always sensitive to her 
obligations, is unwilling to allow the present 
occasion, so propitious, to pass without an 
acknowledgment of the debt of gratitude which 
she owes to the gallant State of Rhode Island ; 
and she joins her voice to that of Rhode Island 
and South Carolina In tribute of affection and 
veneration to the memory of Nathanael Greene. 

She cannot forget to-day, nor would she for- 



get, when Rhode Island's distinguished son 
[Mr. Jenckes] so justly claims for his State 
the glory and the heroic services of the departed 
chieftain, that upon her soil among the most 
brilliant and enduring of his eminent services 
were performed. She cannot forget that In 
the hour of her great calamity. In those dark 
days ''which tried the souls of men," when 
reverses and 111 fortunes had thrown a pall 
black as midnight about her horizon ; when 
her soil was soon to be invaded by a victorious 
army of her oppressors ; when ruin, utter and 
Irretrievable ruin and subjugation hung out in 
dismal prospective before her; when men's 
courage began to fail and their hearts to sink 
within them ; when hope Itself had burnt to its 
socket and faded to animate or to cheer ; when 
everything seemed lost and gone forever ; 
when the spirit of resolution shrank back ap- 
palled at the overpowering force of the invader ; 
when the patriots of North Carolina had begun 
to fear that the immortal Declaration which 
they had flung defiantly into the teeth of their 
British tyrants that they " were and would be 
a free and Independent people " was about to 
prove an idle boast ; then It was, in the hour 
of her emergency, that Nathanael Greene, the 
hero of so many northern victories, the patriot 
general who declared that he "was as ready to 
serve In the Carollnas as In New England," 
came to her rescue, and with him brought 
assurance and hope and safety. 

Sir, she cannot forget that on December 2, 
1780, he arrived at Charlotte and restored 
confidence to an army dispirited and discour- 
aged by the disastrous defeat at Camden ; and 
that by his skill, genius, and strategy, troops 
undisciplined, harassed by defeats, and un- 
prepared for war were organized and mus- 
tered and made " foemen worthy of British 
steel. " She cannot forget that the first signal 
check given to the triumphal march of the 
victorious Cornwallls was at Guilford Court- 
House on March 15, 1781. She does not for- 
get that he was with her people and among 
them until the last enemy had left her borders. 
Fresh as yesterday's events are these occur- 
rences. Deep, very deep, Is his memory 
written upon our hearts. By the side of her 
own patriotic dead North Carolina places the 



10 



name of Nathanael Greene. Already she has 
embalmed it upon her records by bestowing 
it upon one of the rich and fertile counties of 
the east and the beautiful city of the very 
region where bis gallantry and patriotism were 
so signally displayed. 

But it needed not these to keep him in 
remembrance, for throughout the Old North 
State, from mountains to sea, his name is a 
"household word" familiar and dear to every 
ear ; and wherever you find a true son of North 
Carolina, at home or abroad, proud as he may 
be and justly is of his own State and her patriots 
and heroes, you can touch a tender chord within 
his breast and his soul will thrill with enthusi- 
asm at the mention of the name of Na.thanael 
Greene, the saviour of North Carolina. 

And his life and history are familiar to the 
sons of Carolina. Old men and venerable, who 
had served under Gates at Camden, and who 
met Greene at Charlotte, and who followed him 
in his unequaled march through North and 
South Carolina ; who were with him at Guil- 
ford and Eutaw Springs ; who saw day after day 
his indomitable energy, his strength of will, his 
self-sacrificing devotion, his great endurance, 
his determination to conquer or to die, and, 
above all, his power on the battle-field — have 
told it to their prattling babes, as seated upon 
the paternal knee they have heard the thrill- 
ing story of our country's first great struggle ; 
and they in turn have transmitted to us the 
charge of our fathers, to keep fresh the fame 
of the general who, sent by Washington, had 
come South and met the gallant Cornwallis, 
flushed v/ith success and sure of easy victory, 
and put him to rout and drove the last enemy 
from North Carolina. 

And, sir, when North Carolina shall forget 
the worth of patriotism ; when she shall forget 
the honor due to heroism and virtue ; v/hen 
she shall forget the immortal men who inaugu- 
rated the great movement for independence at 
Mecklenburg CourtHouse, May 20, 1775, and 
first proclaimed the eternal truth that "all 
men are free and equal ; " when she shall for- 
get Guilford Couit-House and Charlotte ; when 
she shall forget the stirring events of 1780 and 
1781; when she shall forget her own origin and 
the foundation of her present happiness, then 



and not until then, will she fail to hold in 
hallowed recollection the name of Nathanael 
Greene. 

Mr. Speaker, the magnificent campaign of 
General Greene against Cornwallis in the Caro- 
linas has already been justly and eloquently 
described. It would be useless repetition for 
me to go over it. Deservedly high will it 
stand, if not unequaled, in the history of mili- 
tary genius and strategy. With everything to 
discourage and nothing to give hope — a country 
dispirited and disheartened, an army disor- 
ganized and unfit for service ; half-fed, half- 
clad, and half-paid, as well as half-armed — all 
these united to discourage a man with less res- 
olution than he had, but he was equal to the 
emergency. He nobly justified the confidence 
which Washington had exhibited in sending 
him to the command of the army of the South 
after the defeat of General Gates. By marches 
and countermarches, feints and surprises, skill 
and strategy, he outgeneraled his British antag- 
onist at every point, and electrified a country 
hanging in doubt and suspense, by the brilliancy 
of his movements, driving Cornwallis from the 
country discomfited and his army demoralized. 
But the tongue of eloquence has already pro- 
claimed these achievements. 

Permit me to say a word concerning his char- 
acter. His life, so full of stirring incident and 
extraordinary emergencies, without a single in- 
consistency or mean action, presents a striking, 
beautiful, and harmonious whole, symmetrical 
as the noble statue in yonder Hall, and pure 
and spotless as the marble of which it is made. 
Rare, indeed, are the instances in Avhich a 
combination of so many excellent qualities of 
head and heart can be found in a single indi- 
vidual. He had all the virtues, and if malig- 
nity ever detected, it has never exposed a vice. 
He had greatness without vanity. He had mil- 
itary distinction and fame without being haughty 
or arrogant. He had nobleness of mind without 
littleness of soul. He had powerful strength 
of will and determination of purpose without 
being dictatorial or exacting. He had learn- 
ing without pedantry. He had patriotism with- 
out selfishness. He had, in fine, all the moral, 
social, and intellectual virtues which we admire 
most in a soldier, which we revere most in a 



11 



statesman, and which we love most in a man. 
Brave and daring without being reckless, a 
master of military skill and science, he was a 
model general. Devoted to the cause of lib- 
erty, sacrificinghome, quiet, and even etiquette, 
in the service of his country, he was a model 
patriot. Honest, sincere, and truthfnl, know- 
ing and loving the truth— he was a model man. 
In each character he was preeminent, and 
a parallel to his life is ofteuer found upon the 
painted pages of the novelist than in the real- 
ities of every day. Extraordinary, indeed, 
must he have been of whom the impartial judge 
of men and things, Alexander Hamilton, could 
say, "that high as this great man stood in the 
estimation of his country the whole extent of 
his worth was never known." No doubt, sir, 
if he had been spared longer to his country 
his services in her councils would have equaled 
the renown which he gained in her battles ; 
but he was snatched away by relentless death 
in the full vigor of manhood and strength ; 
and while we do not know the " whole extent 
of his worth," we know enough of him to per- 
petuate his memory ; we know enough of him 
to teach our children to emulate his virtues and 
patriotism ; v/e know enough of him to claim 
him as one of the householdgods of the nation. 
After the close of the great struggle which 
resulted in our liberties he settled in the sunny 
South, which he had redeemed, and dying, 
was buried there to hallow the soil which he had 
saved. And, sir, we have been told by the 
gentleman from South Carolina, [Mr. Whitte- 
MOPvE,] and reproachfully be it said, that the 
spot where he is buried is unknown. No im- 
posing shaft stands out in bold relief to catch 
the patriot pilgrim's eye and invite him to 
pause awhile and drop a tear over the ashes 
of a nation's hero ; no splendid tablet, rich in 
design and elaborate in finish, spreads itself 
out to commemorate the heroism and fame of 
departed greatness. Too true is it that not 
even a rude head-board marks the spot where 
General Greene rests. 

But, sir, I cannot and will not believe that 
the dust of his body has ever been desecrated. 
I cannot believe that the foot of the plowman 
has pressed heavily upon his grave, or that the 
busy hand of the architect and mechanic have 



reared above it some magnificent structure 
dedicated to commerce or luxury. Nature 
itself would not permit the outrage. Mother 
earth would resent the insult to one of her 
noblest sons, and palsied would be the hand 
and paralyzed the foot that would disturb his 
ashes. 

The locality of his burying-place may be 
unknown, but methinks that in some lovely 
quiet spot by the bank of a rippling rivulet, 
where the wild flowers of the South exhale 
their sweetest perfume, and shaded by some 
tall and graceful elm tree symbolic of the great 
man's life and character, he sleeps ; and the 
merry little warblers of nature, catching inspir- 
ation from the scenery, perch themselves upon 
the boughs of the shade and mournfully chir- 
rup his dirge, or anon breaking forth into 
full-throated melody, richer than cathedral ever 
dispensed, swell the chorus of his praises and 
fill the air with the music of his renown. And 
the Georgia yeoman, "as he homeward plods 
his weary way," approaching the spot, turns 
aside to spare the little lily that raises its modest 
head as a foot-board to the grave — 

" How sleep the brave who sink to rest 
By all their country's wishes blest 1 
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold, 
Returns to deck their hallowed mold, 
She there shall dress a sweeter sod 
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod. 

' ' By fairy hands their knell is rung ; 
Uy foa-ms unseen their dirge is sung ; 
There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray. 
To bless the turf that wraps their clay ; 
And Freedom shall awhile repair 
And dwell a weeping hermit there." 

•'Dust to dust," "ashes to ashes," Mr, 
Speaker, is the sequel common to humanity ; 
but some men " when they die, die all ;" their 
"moldering clay is but an emblem of their 
memories." Not so Nathanael Greene. He 
can never die. lie will never be forgotten. He 
has " left a mark behind J " and shall pluck the 

" Shining age from vulgar time. 
And give it whole to late posterity." 

And, sir, a hundred years hence, when I shall 
be forgotten, Mr. Speaker, and you only remem- 
bered by the distinguished services which you 
have rendered your country ; when this room 
shall have become too small to accommodate 
the thousand Representatives of one hundred 
and fifty million people, who shall inhabit a 



12 



Republic bounded by the poles and watered by 
four great oceans, and our Hall sball be con- 
verted into the " marble room" of the Capitol, 
filled with the statues of heroes and scholars, 
and statesmen, not the least admired of them 
all, not the least noticed and studied and 
loved, among the many great will be the 
beautiful statue of General Greene which we 
to-day receive from the State of Rhode Island. 

Mr. SLOCUM. The exciting scenes through 
which our country has passed during the last 
ten years has undoubtedly had the efifect, to 
some extent at least, of withdrawing the pub- 
lic mind from the events in which General 
Greene performed so active and so honorable 
a part. But though to many the history of his 
military career may have been rendered some- 
what less interesting by the more sanguinary 
struggles of our own day, yet there are thou- 
sands in our midst who now read the record 
of his military services, particularly of his 
campaign in the Caroliuas, with an interest 
never before experienced and an appreciation 
never before felt for that ardent patriotism and 
heroic courage which enabled him with an 
inferior and ill-appointed army to drive the 
British troops from those States. There are 
thousands in our country who have marched 
over the same fields, crossed the same rivers, 
and aided in winning victories in behalf of the 
same principles which actuated Greene and 
his command. These men can bear witness to 
the obstacles he was compelled to meet and 
overcome and to the deep devotion to his 
country by which he must have been inspired. 

The esteem placed by the country upon the 
services of General Greene was shown not only 
in words of Washington, but by the action of 
Congress, which after the Revolution voted to 
present to him two captured bronze guns, 
which, with a suitable inscription, were after- 
ward placed in the little chapel at West Point, 
and which remain there, if I am not mistaken, 
to this day. 

But, sir, even the soldiers who recently cam- 
paigned over the fields on which General 
Greene won his brightest laurels will fail to 
appreciate his services unless they bear in mind 
the embarrassments under which he labored. 



His little army was poorly clothed, seldom 
paid, and entirely destitute of many of the ap- 
pointments now deemed necessai-y to an army 
in the field, and which, by the great increase 
in the wealth of our people and by the advance- 
ment in military science, were liberally sup- 
plied to all our armies during the late war. 

It v/ill be difficult to find two chapters in 
the history of our country which furnish such 
striking evidence of our advancement in pop- 
ulation, wealth, and military power as those 
which tell the stories of Greene's and Sher- 
man's campaigns through the Carolinas. The 
one, in the language of Mr. Lincoln — 

"Struggling to bring forth upon this continent a 
new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to 
the proposition that all men are created equal. The 
other testing whether that nation or any other na- 
tion so conceived and so dedicated can long endure." 

The former fighting in behalf of thirteen 
sparsely-settled colonies, destitute of wealth 
and of nearly all the appliances necessary to 
military power. His little army having no pon- 
ton trains was often compelled to make long 
detours from its direct line of march ; and the 
telegraph and railroad being then unknown, his 
operations were often involved for days and 
even weeks in as much doubt and uncertainty 
at the headquarters of the General-in-Chief as 
were the movements of General Sherman while 
in the heart of the enemy's country. 

In our late war, although we were a divided 
people, each side placed in the field armies 
single divisions of which outnumbered the 
entire army commanded by General Greene ; 
and such was the wealth and patriotism of our 
people that no armies were' ever better sup- 
plied with all the appliances tending to add to 
the efficiency and comfort of the troops. 

It is fitting that the statue of one who took 
so prominent a part in our first struggle should 
have a place in the Capitol of his country. 
While it serves to keep fresh and green the 
memory of his great services it will also recall 
to mind the days when a New England general 
was welcomed by the people of the Carolinas 
as a deliverer from oppression. 

May the recollection of that day and of the 
terrible scenes through which we have since 
passed serve to remind us and our children's 
children of the fearful harvest a nation situ- 



13 



ated as is onrs is likely to reap from the seeds 
of sectional jealousy and strife which have too 
often been sov/n within these Halls. 

Mr. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to thank 
the people of Rhode Island for the gift which 
they have so appropriately and generously pre- 
sented to the country. The value of that gift, 
sir, cannot be estimated by figures or repre- 
sented by words. The cost of the marble, the 
incomparable skill of the artist in the execu- 
tion of the work, are no slight indication even 
of its inestimable value. It is a monument to 
those sterling qualities of mind and heart which 
elevate men to a forgetfulness of self and ren- 
der them only mindful of the well-being of 
their fellov/men. It is a monument to that 
devotion to principle and that faith in the ulti- 
mate triumph of the right which impel men to 
abandon the quiet of home, the delightful com- 
panionship of wife and children, the pleasant 
paths of peace, and sustain them amid priva- 
tions, dangers, and disasters. 

The statue of General Nathanael Greene, 
standing as it does to-day in the most conspicu- 
ous place on the American continent, will be 
to the youth of this Republic a perpetual re- 
minder of what one resolved heart can do in 
the furtherance of a righteous cause. The hon- 
est, manly soul, staggering under difficulties, 
overwhelmed it may be with adversity, will 
turn from the contemplation of this beautiful 
^effigy with new inspiration and renewed cour- 
age. He will be reminded that the man to 
whose honor it has been raised was poor, was 
cruelly maligned, was surrounded by diffi- 
culties, was encompassed by dangers, was over- 
whelmed time and again with defeat, and yet, 
thank God, was never conquered ! His fervent 
zeal, his indomitable energy, his unswerving 
patriotism, his broad, comprehensive common 
sense and magnificent heroism, sustained and 
carried him triumphantly through all, and thus 
won for him not only the gratitude of his own 
countrymen, but the admiration of the world. 

By raising statues we cannothope to benefit 



the dead, but we may hope thus to elevate 
the living ; and that beautiful marble, which 
presents to us the face and form of a hero, by 
teaching the youth of our land the honor due 
to freedom's champions, by inculcating re- 
spect for the homely, manly virtues of self- 
denial, firmness, patriotism, perseverance, and 
fortitude, may through succeeding generations 
raise up many sturdy patriots to defend the 
Republic and save it from dishonor. When 
falsehood, selfishness, and every variety of 
meanness, bedecked with golden trappings, 
stalk abroad unrebuked, teaching the sorry 
lesson that honor is nothing and wealth is 
everything, it is well for a State to hev/ out of 
solid marble the true standard of manliness 
and set it up as an enduring rebuke to this 
sordid spirit, and an encouragement to those 
who would rise above it to a plane of truer 
manhood and nobler usefulness. 

As we look upon this statue our thoughts 
revert to the commencement of our history as 
a nation, when the fate of a great enterprise, 
involving the fortunes of untold millions, was 
still enveloped in darkness. God only foresaw 
the end, Nathanael Greene had faith, and 
buoyed by that knightly sentiment which 
affirms that in a just cause success or failure 
is alike glorious, he pushed forward with a 
courage that grew on defeat, a perseverance 
that increased with disaster, a determination 
that would succeed or "die in the attempt." 
What he labored and suffered to attain we are 
so fortunate as to live to enjoy, and our hearts, 
I hope, and the hearts of all good men I feel 
assured, go back to him and his compatriots, 
rejoicing over that courage and wisdom and 
rugged self denial which secured to a great 
people such manifold benefits, and to a nation 
so grand a destiny. 

" Praise to the valiant dead ! For them doth art 

Exhaust her skill their triumphs bodying forth ; 
Theirs are enshrined names, and every heart 

Shall bear the blazoned impress of their worth. 
Bright on the dreams of youtli their fame shall rise, 

Their fields of fight sliall epic song record ; 
And when the voice of battle rends the skies. 

Their name shall be their country's rallyitts word." 

The resolution was agreed to. 



